1) World's
highest railway tunnel opened in China: The world's highest tunnel for
high-speed trains in northwest China became operational on Friday at an
altitude of 3,607.4 metres. The 16.3-km-long was completely linked up,
operationalising the line linking Gansu Province and Xinjiang provinces. With
altitudes of up to 3,607.4 metres, the tunnel passes through the Qilian
Mountains with two sections and a bridge. The construction began in 2009. It is
designed for trains running at over 200 km per hour and will cut the train
travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi to eight hours from about 20 hours.
2) President
confers gallantry awards: President Pranab Mukherjee Friday conferred three
Kirti Chakras and nine Shaurya Chakras on armed forces personnel for displaying
"conspicuous gallantry, indomitable courage and extreme devotion" to
duty at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The president also presented
three Uttam Yudh Seva Medals for a high degree of distinguished service in an
operational context which includes times of war, conflict, or hostilities.
3) Waqar
Younis Offered Two-Year Contract to Coach Pakistan: Pakistan Cricket Board
(PCB) has offered former captain Waqar Younis a two-year contract to coach the
national side, according to chairman Najam Sethi. Waqar Younis had coached
Pakistan in 2010 and 2011 before resigning for 'personal' reasons during Ijaz
Butt's tenure at the helm of the cricket Board.
4) Election
Queue Management System introduced in India: The Election Queue Management
System, a first of its kind initiative was introduced in India. It was
introduced by the District Election Authority in Burdwan district, West Bengal
during Lok Sabha election held on 30 April 2014. The Election queue management
system helped voters to find out the level of crowd in the polling booths in
Burdwan district. This system will help the voter in receiving information
about the crowd in the queue by sending an SMS with the Electoral Photo
Identity Card (EPIC) number to 9230085005.
5) 32
killed in 36 hours by Bodo militants in Assam, curfew imposed: There seems
to be no end to the bloodbath in Assam as seven more bodies have been found in
Baksa district, taking the total death toll to 32 in the last 36 hours. This
comes after suspected Bodoland militants killed at least 23 people in a span of
24 hours in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts of lower Assam.
6) India
slips in the global rankings for freedom of the press: India has slipped
down the global rankings for freedom of the press, thanks to what The Annual
Index of Media Freedom called "increased interference in content by media
owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections". Global press freedom has
fallen to its lowest level in over a decade with India ranked 78th and
belonging to countries with "partially free media".
7) Deadline
ended for non-CTS cheques: The deadline for switching to new format bank
cheques under the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) ended on 30 April 2014. The
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started the process of migration to CTS cheques in
New Delhi and Chennai from 24 September 2011. Transactions with cheques that
have Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) and not CTS technology will be
delayed from 1 May 2014. Now, the non- CTS cheques will be likely to take four
days or more from the date of deposit to credit the amount. Banks will now
clear non-CTS cheques on Mondays and Fridays only.
8) Air
India to join Star Alliance in July: Air India (AI) is all set to join the world's
largest airline grouping company— Star Alliance, this July, making it the first
airline company from India to be part of a global chain of carriers. The move,
according to AI CMD Rohit Nandan, will bring immense benefits to Indian fliers
from day one as they will be able to earn-and-burn miles, get access to lounges
across the globe and enjoy seamless connectivity across the globe.
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